


Getting Home

by Msynergy



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4471316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Msynergy/pseuds/Msynergy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’d been amongst Evie’s go-to party members since the start, but when the latest plea came in for dragon extermination she’d already left Skyhold a few days before tracking down Seeker leads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting Home

**Author's Note:**

> This one’s for vehlr. Takes place after “In Sickness.”
> 
> Disclaimer: Don’t own them, never will. Just playing in the sandbox.

They’d been amongst Evie’s go-to party members since the start, but when the latest plea came in for dragon extermination she’d already left Skyhold a few days before tracking down Seeker leads.

So instead he’d set out in the company of Dorian, Bull, and the Inquisitor, Bull practically vibrating with excitement at the hope that he’d put another notch in the ram horn that tracked his dragon kills.

Varric hadn’t been so thrilled, already missing the Seeker and now facing a dragon without her leaving something heavy and foul in his gut.

As with past hunts teamwork had been the word of the day, but Varric had spent more time dodging than firing Bianca.

The overgrown lizard was fucking fast, faster than any they’d come across yet. Vicious spikes on the end of its tail didn’t help either.

As he vaulted yet another rock with a dragonling in pursuit, he unfortunately found just how vicious.

They nearly had the behemoth on its knees, it was a desperate blow, and only that saves him as the tall spikes collided with him broadside, sending him flying.

Rubble breaks his fall, and he’s trying to remember how to breathe as he hears the dragon’s dying roar and subsequent squeals of its remaining infants.

“Varric! Dorian! Get over here!”

A potion flask pressed to his lips and the warm tingling glow of healing magic washed over him before he didn’t remember anything anymore.

* * *

 

He woke on a stretcher dragged by Evie’s Nug, surrounded by Dorian and Bull’s mounts and his own pony tied to Dorian’s.

“Hey, Boss! He’s finally awake!”

The Inquisitor swiveled in the saddle, eyes wide, and quickly halted Spud.

The overgrown Nug tossed his horns, but stayed put otherwise as she dismounted and darted to his side.

“Hey Tethras, didn’t your mother teach you to look before you leap?”

He chuckled, despite the tenderness in his sides and back that spoke to recently healed ribs and probably some innards as well. He also had a huge headache.

“Here,” Dorian appeared by Evie’s side, offering a small bottle with purple liquid inside, “For the pain.”

He took it readily, but wasn’t in so much pain as to not notice the looks of relief when his hand closed around the glass.

Rising up slowly to slurp down the tonic, he realized his armor was gone under the heavy blanket, and his bare feet twitched at the itchiness of the wool.

Evie caught the motion and actually sighed this time, and he handed the empty vial back with an arched brow.

“Alright spill, how bad was it?”

Dorian actually swallowed hard, and Evie avoided eye contact. Even Bull looked solemn.

Shit.

“That bad, huh?”

Evie met his gaze again, tears unhidden this time.

“You landed on some real sharp rocks. One- one cracked your spine as well as your ribs. Dorian fixed the bones, but we had no way of knowing if-”

“If I’d wake up able to move.”

Realization smashed into him like a Bronto, and he wiggled his toes and fingers unconsciously. They reacted same as ever, but he was suddenly a lot more appreciative of that fact.

Evie nodded, adding, “Or if you’d wake up at all after the blow to your head. We camped out for a while hoping you would with more time to heal, but when you weren’t I sent word to Skyhold about what happened and we headed out.”

He stilled.

“How long did we camp?”

“Varric-”

“How long?!” He demanded.

“A week,” Bull answered gruffly.

His mouth dropped open, then snapped shut.

It’s taken a several days on horseback to reach that Maker-forsaken dragon, they’d have been gone well over a fortnight total by the time Skyhold’s battlements were in sight. Cassandra was supposed to return just before them on their previous itinerary-

“Evie, what did you say in that message to Skyhold?”

The Inquisitor bit her lip, a nervous habit of hers, and his stomach sank.

“Please understand Varric, we didn’t know if we’d be bringing home a friend or a corpse,” Dorian jumped in, “We told Josie to prepare everyone for the worst.”

If his head hadn’t hurt before, it certainly hurt now, along with a sharp twist in his chest like he’d been stabbed.

They were just making a start, enjoying the new-found intimacy her catching that stomach sickness had uncovered, and now Cassandra had been told to prepare for likelihood that he’d never come back. It was a risk both their professions demanded, but he hadn’t left her yet, and she didn’t know-

“Where’s my armor?”

Evie jumped, “Varric, you need to rest-”

“I’ve rested enough! Dragging my sorry ass back to Skyhold will take even more time, now where’re my damn clothes?!”

Bull moved to his saddle bags without a word, producing the rogue armor and handing it to a rising Varric.

“Bull-!” Dorian started.

“You see what I see right? He’s tender but healed, and the sooner we get him back to the Seeker the better!” The Qunari argued back.

That point silenced any other arguments. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Cassandra and he had something going since she’d kissed him at the training yards for all to see, and the rest of the inner circle had been happy, in Evie’s case even ecstatic, for them. No doubt sending that message had been one of the harder things she’d had to do since becoming Inquisitor.

“Fine, but you so much as wince and it’s back on a stretcher,” Evie threw her hands up, standing to detach the makeshift device as Varric hurriedly threw on his clothes. They couldn’t get to Skyhold soon enough, and despite the pain in his back and torso Varric stuck it out for the remaining days.

Focusing on getting back and to Cassandra helped, and when they finally passed through the main gates and word spread that their party had arrived whole and alive, he almost didn’t believe his own eyes when he spotted a tall streak of red, black, and purple bolt toward them at the stables.

He’d barely dismounted before she was on him, long arms crushing as she buried her face in his hair. His own arms encircled her just as fast, and he heard a telling sniffle that broke his heart.

“Hey,” he pulled back just enough to reach and cup her cheek, her own hand raising to cover his as she leaned into the touch. Her eyes were red, makeup smudged, and his heart crumbled even more.

“I’m so sorry, Seeker. I never wanted you to think-“

Her kiss was desperate, clinging and hot and altogether not appropriate for public viewing, but her tongue slid against his and he suddenly didn't care. Let them look, he’d almost died and left her behind, he wasn’t going to pass this up.

But just as fast as she started it she ended it, leaving him breathing hard as she moved her hand to his chin, urging his face upward.

"Don’t you ever do that to me again.”

He knew she knew it’s not a promise he could truly keep, neither of them could, but he said it anyway.

“I won’t.”

He pulled her in this time, and said with touch what he couldn’t yet speak.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4603377) by [vehlr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vehlr/pseuds/vehlr)




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